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But, what's got you so excited? Are the songs unique or do they sound like 50 other bands? If so what's unique about them?

I've certainly got a lot of confidence in my band and believe we'll achieve what I'm setting out to achieve. And certainly a lot of good things have happened to us over the past year or so that, whilst I was very pleased by and grateful for, I wasn't surprised by them in a way that other people might have been.

In general I don't think it's a random lottery which bands "make it" and which bands don't and think, aside from obviously being good enough, you have to work hard enough and make the right decisions and time well tell if we manage to do all that. But I've certainly got a lot of confidence in the musicians in my band.

quality and popularity, you make it sound like music is a meritocracy, which it obviously in no way is - if indeed you did 'blow up' are you talking about joining the ranks of commerically successful mainstream indie such as scouting for girls/hoosiers/razorlight et al? Somehow, because you're posting this on DiS I think not..

I have no empirical evidence to hand, but I'm pretty sure that the real talented, respected bands, from Animal Collective to Radiohead to Arcitc Monkeys and Foals, had no idea they were ever destined for success... and any band who sets out with that target is inevitably destined to fail, a painter doesn't think 'this is going to be my masterpiece' - it seems to me that art cannot be quantified as such, gret art transcends expectations, bypasses reason, and comes from the heart, not the head of someone who thinks their the next big thing..

For me as soon as you start thining 'we're the best we're going to big' you've undone any chances of that ever happening

and after pressing 'post' I wish I addressed it originally!

I think I have my own personal definition of "Huge". Success to me would be taking the band full time, touring with generally acclaimed bands and building up a pretty sizeable (another questionable term...but i'm not comfortable throwing out numbers!) following.

Good luck with your band!

have i found your band my friend? when shall i spill it?

we played our first gig in barcelona and our third (which hopefully will be confirmed this week) will be supporting one of the biggest bands country.

however this is the least confident i've ever felt about a band i've been in to be honest. i always have the belief in my other bands that i play in that we'll be the next radiohead, haha. Though not for this band, no.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/images/jag.jpg

Well, in all honesty who would be in a band if they were dawdling around thinking "well we're ok, bit derivative of early britpop, actually we're quite mediocre at times", every band thinks they're the dog's nuts. A vast majority are not. Every time I finish a song I am excited enough about it to think 'wow, this could be THE song to do it for us!', occasionally my band agree. Quite a few of our last shows we have felt like the best band of the night, but I'm sure the other bands have thought the same thing! But it's different to thinking 'we're gonna be huge', I would rather aim to be brilliant and see what happens from there...

?

i'm feeling good about the band i'm in..mostly just having a hell of a lot of fun playing writing songs and playing shows and that's what it's all about for me..anything else is cool but incidental

right now i think the best a band can hope for is a cool 2 year ride at the end of which you leave with exactly what you went in with. If this is your definition of big then I dont think your big headed if its ££ and playboy bunnies then yes you need a head check.

No but I really want to be in one. Right now im sturggling with the medicre musicians i play with and am looking to meet new ones.

Seriously.

I think I know what you mean....someone I know left one band which was superior in every way to the band he was 'helping out'..the band he was helping out however just had hte right contacts..and gigs were flying in...now they are ready for a tour and he ditched the other band...who will never make it..the music,songwriting etc is excellent...it is pure pop/rock brilliantly done...but they will never get the right contacts because they are simply a bunch of loners...plus they tried the mysapce route without a local following..and played in the wrong places..

The mediocre band just played 3 nights a week to kids in the home counties..and whoop....they are asked to release a single with a label.

You just need to know who to target.

if you fit into a particular part of a market you can, with the right work ethic and decision making, be "successful". the giddier heights of popularity where you'll be around for 10 years and able to live solely off of it will inevetibly rely on finding your place in a big enough market to sustain that and working your ass off the whole time and grabbing the right opportunities as they come along to nurture that success (ie special performances, endorsement deals, media use of the music, reltionships with the press etc). there are so many variables that may shape where the band could go. i would say work hard at it and enjoy it. and good luck of course!

if you fit into a particular part of a market you can, with the right work ethic and decision making, be "successful". the giddier heights of popularity where you'll be around for 10 years and able to live solely off of it will inevetibly rely on finding your place in a big enough market to sustain that and working your ass off the whole time and grabbing the right opportunities as they come along to nurture that success (ie special performances, endorsement deals, media use of the music, reltionships with the press etc). there are so many variables that may shape where the band could go. i would say work hard at it and enjoy it. and good luck of course!

One guy had written/recorded all the songs and was just starting to get people together for a live band. He wants to take it seriously and try and make a living from the band, which I think with the quality of the songs they really could manage. They were incredibly well written and produced, and sort of fitted into a niche in the whole "clever-pop" market at the moment - somewhere between Mystery Jets and Grammatics is the best way to describe it. And they'd already had airplay on BBC6 so they must be doing something right.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it into the band...but I know exactly what nick_add means!

AICMFP

Everyone thinks the songs they have written are quiality.

Truth is it's never been harder to get a deal.

Has this band put a single out yet or been on tour ?? I'd save being cocky until you have acheived something.

all i want from it is something fun to do for a while, to play some gigs (first one on friday woooo!) and maybe release something good. anything more than that i doubt would happen but it would be cool.

to never have a 'real' job. Sadly, i'm not the only one.
The perfect situation for me to be in in a few years would be in a successful band...
What's more likely is that i'll be doing some lessons, some playing, bits here and there but if I can do that without the needed for a job just to pay the bills, i'll be well happy. My cousin lives solely off playing drums + co-owning a studio. As he said himself, he doesn't make loads of money but he doesn't have a boss either.

want a link. good luck to ye squire!

....sheesh.

check yourself. even if you make it big.

check.

yourself.

managed to derail their career by proclaiming themselves to be the best band in scotland, thus alienating their peers and journalists who would have possibly agreed but would have liked to have come to the conclusion themselves? Fine band indeed and in my opinion were right but save it for the front cover of Q maybe...!

it mostly comes down to the people you know. just look at alan mcgee: he can make any shit band big. you won't hear anything remotely interesting or new from him, but still. unfortunately it doesn't mean anything if you're music is good. do you have an image? that's what really counts. depressing, innit?!

You feel like being in your band is a good use of your time. Good, I hope your right.

So many people have missed the point of this thread.

Thanks to the rest of you though.

Got to say i admire your confidence, Enthusiasm and cockiness. There is no doubt that in the modern music industry all these attributes are required to 'make it big' in the music industry. Make an effort to find a half decent producer who is equally confident in your ability, gig everywhere and anywhere, and if possible try and think out the box with your promotion. Although myspace etc is an essential part now to promoting any band (even the big ones) it takes something different to make your band stand out in the first place.

Gerry

Your optimistic ??

Please explain ??

if youre so convinced youre going to be huge why dont you give the myspace link or whatever? Whats with all the secrecy? Its inevitable, obviously, that were all going to be buying your records so why not cut down on time and give us a cheeky listen now? Is it possibly because, actually, youre just talking a bunch of bollocks and the inevitable back lash that you'll receive will dent your inflated ego?

IDK.

Anyway, I've only ever been in one band and we definitely wouldn't have got anywhere near huge. It would be neat to be in a huge band. I'd love to be in an international phenomenon like the Jonas Brothers.

im pretty sure hes the drummer from air castles

MySpace URL:

www.myspace.com/aircastlesmusic

a drummer wouldnt quit his job for someonelse's project

How hard is it for people to grasp that what band I'm in is regardless and irrelevant to the success of the conversation? I was telling you all how I felt about the band I was in. I didn't stop there, did I? I then asked who had had the same feelings about their band, who had had those feelings come true and whose had fallen flat on their arse.

A discussion. Not a fucking investigation as to what band I'm in.

Looooooooosers.

How hard is it for people to grasp that what band I'm in is regardless and irrelevant to the success of the conversation? I was telling you all how I felt about the band I was in. I didn't stop there, did I? I then asked who had had the same feelings about their band, who had had those feelings come true and whose had fallen flat on their arse.

A discussion. Not a fucking investigation as to what band I'm in.

Looooooooosers.

Neither of which I expected to get signed and be famous or whatever. But that's not a priority for me at all, I'd rather be in a position where I'm able to make music for the rest of my life without having to stick to full time office work for the rest of my life. It's pretty unrealistic but I never want to be part of 'the next big thing' and then disappear only a few months later.

if it's possible to know what band you're in?

by DiS

Jeez.

Thanks to the people that understood the thread and responded to the discussion as opposed to picking at apparent perceived undertones to what I was saying.

don't really care though - cos at the moment I shit scratchcards

only want to get big enough to wipe my arse on swans necks

99% of people would say yeah I thought my band would be massive and it wasnt then hopefully one person from a well known band would go yeah i thought my band would be massive and we are.

Thats not a discussion.

plenty of frothing at the mouth, enjoyed it.

hey nick, great news! what's the band called?

This is DiS.
Painfully obscure or GTFO

had confidence in themselves, or else they wouldn't have continued and put the hours in. As with most things there's a balance, this time between sober optimism and blind faith, unfortunately being in the middle of something gives you the worst idea of where you stand between the two. I've had thoughts similar to what this guy is saying, i've also had opposite moments when I think how silly I'm being. Just try not to think about it too much, it only takes away from the enjoyment of playing/making music..

thats more interesting !!

In spite of the seemingly good intentions for what you wanted to achieve with this thread, you can't complain that people "don't understand", or that you're disappointed by some of the responses. Don't ask a question if you don't want an open discussion.

Your original question is meaningless though, because the responses will be judgements based on an individual's ego - and without knowing them personally, you can't determine whether their beliefs are worthy or misplaced. Just as we don't know if you're simply being arrogant, because there's no evidence to back-up your statement.

It's ONLY by relating replies to hearing a band's music that you can judge if their beliefs are justified or not. Otherwise, who cares what the response is, yes or no, it's meaningless. Flipping a coin for a response to your question would hold as much value.

If naming your band would have turned this thread into a farce, well, not naming the band has done that anyway. And by not naming them, it comes across that you don't truly believe what you say and are simply seeking some kind of self-affirmation. And lets face it, these boards aren't the best place for an ego boost.

If you truly believe that your band will be huge (the band you play in and therefore contribute to - even if you don't write the songs), then you need to start growing some thicker skin (and I mean that with the best of intentions).

I have been in a band and thought we would do really well. teh chemistry was there, the singer was classy out front, not a twat, we had awesome rhythms and interesting leads. it felt like it gelled - plus our recordings sparkled - more importantly, they always sounded slightly ahead of other stuff in the charts that was breakign big....everything looked all set.

This seemed to be proved true for a year as we gigged the toilet circuit, got great crowd responses, a few great magazine write ups and positive interviews - we even seemed to come out of those looking o.k!

then for some reason it just fell away, nothign happened after that and it all dried up. inspiraryion and everything.

so close, yet so far. Why? I will never know.

until something happens, but good luck even though your kinda annoying.

what your band is called.........hmmm.

He's playing with Tubelord and Calories in London!

I dont think you could be huge. I think people are bored of snow patrol type stuff.

and went back to my pavement album.
It's allright, by no means bad or anything, just not massively exciting.

"I am quite looking forward to losing my job in a couple of months which I quite like (the company is destined to go under) just so I can put all my time into this band"

Right on, man. Who says rock n roll is dead?

Did you play in the studio as well?

...he might be right. They might get huge. The music is depressingly dull and unoriginal, it therefore ticks all the right boxes for getting huge.

It's not up to you, or how much you believe in the band.

I agree that it's a GREAT feeling when you rehearse and you just know that the music you're making is really really good. It means you're making the music you really WANT to be making. And that can make you confident about 'making it'. I'm in a band like that now and I love it. The songs are great, the live shows are going really well, we're taking things slow and letting it grow in popularity. But I'd never believe for a second that we're destined to 'make it'.

I USED to be in another band. We formed, got tons of press hype, assembled a good team of booking agents and press people, wrote music we loved and had a great time. We constantly believed that the 'big deal' was just around the corner, and that we'd all be giving up our jobs and making an album soon. It just never happened. We spent a good two years playing gigs (both great and awful) and letting our careers kind of disappear. When we split, it took me a good year to get my job back on track...!

So yes, I love the music I'm making, I love the band I'm in, and I think that we COULD be absolutely huge. However, I wouldn't for a second believe that this is actually going to happen. The chances are just too slim. Have fun with a band you love, and if you get signed and 'make it' then that's great, but that's not what you should be aiming for...

that they've all got gigantism like that guy in China and they're all literally going to be huge?

When I've been in bands I've enjoyed it, but known when we've been shit and when we've been alright. A bit of self-awareness is probably a good thing.

What's the name of the band again?

Appreciate that the point of the thread was intended differently but it might help if you let people know who you are though..just a thought! Keeping it a secret will hinder sucess, possibly!

Yea I feel like that about my band sometimes. I certainly did alot when we first started out and things have happened on a very small scale to support my mad idea! In the small successes we have had I have experienced that feeling of excited wonder or anticipation being less prevalent. I become less surprised by the (little) successes as they happen more. What I guess I am saying is that although I still feel like that, I experience that "feeling" less often as the possibility of us being massive seems less absurd. (Although realistically we are a bit left field or whatever for mainstream success, but we all have different meaning of huge.)
www.myspace.com/anemeraldcity

plays bass for luke leighfield

I've given up caring what band this guy claims to be in. I reckon he's just having us all on for a bit of entertainment. As an aside - check out this awesome band from Sweden - Cut City - www.myspace.com/cutcity. And by the way, I'm not in the band either !!

...It sounds like you've put more effort into the band name than the actual songs!

http://www.myspace.com/djdarkshandyonline

Terrible.

Nah, not yet, We moving to Berlin in a month and have a few gigs lined up, nothing massive so far but we will que ourselves up to hit summer 2010 hard.

so will everyone else's

it's hard not to like your own material, after all you wrote it so it's going to sound like what you want to listen to

1) Read this daily
http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/daily_diy/

2) Folow all it's advice

3) Don't be a douchebag

You'll make some money yet.

he asked a question which most of you are refusing to answer with a response. It REALLY, REALLY doesn't matter what band the guy is in.

How can anyone with ears claim that this sounds 'like nothing you've ever heard before'?

Seriously? What the absolute fuck? This is among the most boring music I've ever been tortured through in my life. People are comparing you to Snow Patrol. That's like comparing a dog poo to a broken bottle. Neither are very good, but you're so much more irritating.

http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/10/l_dc6b69c10af749ee8fd3026fb11cda6f.png

you're gonna get to the stage of not working a job? Seriously man, are you surrounded by liars?

who'd have thought this thread would end badly?

is all one big double bluff to drive visitors to Air Castles' Myspace.

It worked.

Well done nick_add.

All that I know is that it's very very important to not be too optimistic bout ones future successes. It will either end in disappointment after a lot of energy and time put into it, or it will make u an over self assured cock.

All you can do is love the music, work your ass off and believe in your capabilities.

And now having heard the tunes, I would certainly recommend u start looking for a new day job.

Maybe more than one, but primarily before posting always remember
that there's a lot of cunts on DiS.

?

The KCRW presenter emailed us on our myspace out of the blue as he'd seen us on a small new music blog

It scares me... i've only been in them for five months. Our first band - yet our gig listingssred gigs with Detroit Social Club, Two Door Cinema Club, Whitest Boy Alive, Answering Machine, Violens.... etc

And we've been in the top ten with all our demos on hype machine :)

I'm starting to think maybe we'll make it. It's a bizarre feeling to be in.. completely daunting in fact!

www.myspace.com/hotknivesuk

this is my band :)

This forum unsettles...a quick browse around made me realise that I'd made a big error straight away. Ha.

In all seriousness though, if I can contribute to the original intention of this thread, I do think my bad is doing quite well, and there's a possibility starting to open up in front of us that something may just happen. It's a bizarre thought and it really does get the mind racing. The likelyhood is that nothing will come from it, but there is a nagging thought at the back of my mind that something might.

Fortunately though it just makes me want to work harder!

http://www.myspace.com/exitinternationalmusic

Come say hi, weirdos.....

firstly i would like to point out that the opinions and views expressed in this thread are not that of myself, max or eddy. we don't claim to be the next big thing, or do we claim that the music is ground breaking. we play music because we love music. yes of course there is the dream, that i'm sure most people on this forum share, of being able to play music for your career but being able to play shows, record records and have fun with friends is more than enough! the music was not written with the intention, air castles is merely ( as i belive max has written on another thread) a vessel for his music which doesn't fit in with the other music we make.
i think nick has been naive to the vicious nature of the DiS vultures and not taken on board that if bold statements like "i honestly believe my band are going to be huge" are thrown around casually, regardless of the actual topic of the thread, people will judge, and instantly form negative opinions.
also the beirut in spain is ridiculous and as much as the internet is a breeding ground for farfetched rumors, no one should ever start any about themselves!

all this said i hope to see you all at our 50 day stint with michael jackson at the end of the year ....

To respond to the original question, yes I did get the feeling that my band was going to be huge. I was playing in about 5 cover-bands a few years back when one night at a gig this dude comes up to me and says he needs a bass player in his band and since I sing he'd like me to try out. I wasn't particularly interested, but he said he'd be right back he's going to get a demo for me to hear. I figured that was the last time I'd see him, but half an hour later he comes back with a disc in his hand. We go back into the kitchen of this bar and put it on a little cd/radio...from the moment I heard the first song I knew I had to be in this band. I auditioned a few weeks later in NYC...they had a production deal with a startup label and the 2 guys that owned it and their friend, an AR guy from Columbia (I think) were there in addition to the band. We played the 3 songs that were on the demo and about a week after that one of the guys from the label (also the producer) called me and scheduled some recording sessions. It took about a year to get the album done, all the while playing shows and building a buzz...and when the album finally dropped the buzz reached a crescendo. A song from the record was spinning on our local FM rock station in Hartford, and was added officially the week of our CD release party. Prior to the disc being completed, we hooked up with Herve Romain from Interscope and he arranged for a 3 camera shoot of our CD release party in Hartford, which was a complete success. A month after that we did a private showcase for Jason Flom and about 10 other people from Atlantic at Montana in NYC. A few months after that we opened for Audioslave at our local arena (and thus far are the only unsigned band to play the mainstage). By christmas our song spun so much and was requested so much we made the most played songs of the year list on the radio station that added us earlier in May. We also were added on a couple of other stations in New England and got specialty play thruout the US. Unfortunately we didn't fare well after that...we sold a few thousand records and did ok on iTunes and other internet sites, but the singer became restless and dis-satisfied with the length of time it was taking to be 'truly' successful and make a career out of the group and left for California. We replaced him with another singer but the song quality was just not the same and it didn't work out after about a year. The singer also found another band and I've checked out their songs and feel he is in the same predicament. I still believe the songs we wrote were great...the album was platinum quality. And like the original poster, except for 3 songs I contributed to, I was not the writer, so I too looked at it from a sort of outsider perspective. I will, however, post a link to our myspace for people to check out if they want. All the songs except for one are from the album I mentioned in the above story. The other one is a demo we recently did with the original guy...trying to rekindle some of that magic, I guess! www.myspace.com/livintrust05

some months have passed. is your band massive now?

How 'bout now?

Or is he no longer in the band.

"The band's name is 'Irrelevant To the Discussion'." I believe you've all been involved in a clever jape. Who's on First.

Have fun pushing all of your things around in a shipping cart whilst homeless. Better hope that job doens't go under.

Haaaaaaaaa

but to get back to the original point...being from kendal its pretty much true that everyone knows everyone. especially if you play music, u become friends with anyone else trying to do something they love. in 2003 for about a year i worked with ben little of wild beasts back when they were called faux and had gareth bullock playing for them on bass...what the guy originally says in this link..."has anybody ever had that feeling"..well i played in a band and obviously so did ben so we were both excited about the music we made and would spend whole days at work just getting excited talking about it...we both left about the same time but the point of this is, toward the end i remember us talking and we both said how we felt really guilty and a little ridiculous for saying it but we both thought we were guna make money from music and that people would listen to us,we even really cheesily wrote "faux and arficeden will be big one day" and hid it in K Village! (the little shopping centre tog 24 was in) it is sad and everything but it just shows ben believed so much in the music and look what happened to wild beasts...as for arficeden...ermmmm touring through jan / feb?!? hmmmm...i still have a good feeling bout all the music im involved with, i just dont really expect a quick success, im looking quite forward to being one of those bands who just stick at it and when were middle aged beer bellied men people will write.."well respect theyve stuck with it and kept on writing?!?!" haha!!!!!!right off to work at morrisons......